Just after the second World War the people wanted a new look.This look had to be glamorous and costly.
1947 Christian Dior came up with a new kind of fashion .Over night he became very famous.
The new look symbolized optimism and copiousness.For many people this new look was very strange and cynical, but after some time, it became normal and they got used to it.

Clothes:

Again, women wore very tight corsets, which they didn´t wear during the war.
The women of the fifties always wore a hat when they left the home.
Bags and shoes always fitted to eachother in colour and style, weather they were made of leather or fabric.When women were at home, they wore skirts and matching socks and leatherpumps of the same colour.
When they went out for dinner,they wore a dress made of flannel and a Paletot which fitted to the dress, also they wore small hats and suede gloves.
Narrow, tight skirts had a slit , so that women could walk comfortably.
When women went out on a journey, they wore dresses like elegant tailor - made suits. The jacket of this dress was double breasted, very tight and small.The jacket had a shawl collar and they wore a small hat along with it.

Accessories:

Women went out with grey lacquered bags, slim grey umbrellas or hats which matched their clothes.

Make - up:

The make - up of the fifties was like a mask on the face. Some men or husbands didn´t even know what their wives looked like without make - up, because they went to bed with a special night make - up.
Toenails and fingernails were perfectly painted and cut.
The hairstyling was also perfect and it was often backcombed.

The line of the clothes in the fifties:

In the fifties Christian Dior created a totally different new line.Sometimes he lifted the hemline varied but only between midcalf and ankle, so basically skirts stayed long. He used different forms,for example the 8 – form,H – form, A – form and Y – form.The other designers in this time used the same forms.

Fabrics:

The designers used flowing fabrics for the voluptuous dresses.
The fabrics were usually jersey or soft wool.
Christian Dior sometimes used ten or even twenty-five metres of fabric for one dress.

Idols in the fifties:

Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot were the idols of the fifties.They wore the same fashion like women on the street, but they were more self – confident than ” normal” women.They emphasized their self – confidence through narrow clothes which emphasized the figure.

Barbie:

In 1959, the Barbie-doll got invented.The Barbie-doll came from the U.S.A. and was devolped by the Mattel factory. From the beginning Barbie`s outfit was perfect.Everything fitted perfectly together, the clothes, shoes, socks, bra and the accessorries.Barbie`s whole styling was like in the real - life, so women or girls liked the Barbie doll a lot.

Jeans:

In the fifties Jeans came to Europe.The new Jeans look was very in .James Dean was a typical men and idol, he came from the U.S.A. and wore blue – Jeans, T – shirts or shirts and short jackets.
The Rock`n Roll became particulary important for the teenagers in the fifties.

Shoes:

Women shoes : The women in the fifties wore high heels.The heels were extremly high and thin like a pen.

men shoes: In the fourties and fifties flat and convenient shoes were in. Half shoes matched the the suits and and mokassins were also very in.

Vocabulary:

• backcomb: dt. toupiert
  
• confidence: a feeling or belief that one can firmly trust or rely on sb.
  
• copious : produced in large quantities
• corsets : tightly fitting garment worn under the outer garments to shape the body, or to support it in case of injury
  
• cynical : of or like a cynic : a cynical remark/ attitude/smile
  
• double breasted - it is a jacket and on the front there are two lines with buttons.
  
• elegant: graceful and attractive in appearance or manner.
  
• emphasised: to put emphasis on sth, to give emphasis to sth.
  
• flannel : a type of soft loosely woollen cloth
  
• hem: the edge of a piece of cloth which has been turned under and sewn: take up the hem to make it shorter.
  
• lacquer bags - it is a bag and the fabric is a kind of shining leather
  
• narrowness: the narrowness of the road, narrowness of mind.
  
• particularly: relating to one person or thing rather than others.
  
• shawl collar: you have it on every jacket, but in different styles.
  
• suitable: right or appropriate for a purpose or an occasion:a suitable candidate.
  
• supported: help or encouragement given to sb/sth, esp in a difficult situation: a proposal that received little public support.
  
• tailor – made: made by person who makes men's clothes, one who makes suits, jackets for individual customers

By Katrin Zeisler and Nermin Son

Sources

Loschek, Ingrid: Die Modedesigner. Ein Lexikon von Armani bis Yamamoto. München: Beck, 1998.
Seeling, Charlotte: Mode - das Jahrhundert der Designer. Köln: Könemann, 1999.
Lehnert, Gertrud: Schnellkurs Mode. Köln: Dumont, 1998.

Timeline Fashion

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